“I never thought I was ‘good’ at art,” laughs Hans de Castellane. “I used to wonder why everyone else wasn’t ‘good’ at it. I suppose it’s like learning cursive.” The painter and muralist got his jumpstart right here on the Cape, only a few miles from his front door. “The first person to notice my aptitude was my grandmother. She signed me up for paint lessons when I was six with local artist, Eileen Smith. Her teaching has impacted me even to this day; the illustrative work that I do of local architecture is very detail-oriented, where I obsess over window sills and shingle shadows. The art that intrigues me the most, what I think draws people in, is the detail. When you keep looking at it, do you see something new?”

Those early days were formative for what has culminated in de Castellane’s signature style, where the smallest detail can have the greatest impact. “I can remember the first time I received a compliment on my artwork,” he continues. “I was in kindergarten at Maple Hill in Brewster. I drew a car; my father was a mechanic, so I grew up surrounded by old British sports cars. I remember the drawing getting passed around, and one of the teachers said, ‘Look, you put in the tire treads.’ And I thought, ‘Well, why wouldn’t you put in the tire treads?’”

To start, de Castellane satiated his creative streak in a practical manner, as many young artists are wont to do. “At art...